Nestlé Black Magic Raisins & Almonds

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on June 23 2008 | Leave A Comment

About a month ago, we got an email from a reader in Ireland asking if we’d heard about Nestlé’s complete revamp of its “Black Magic” brand. In an effort to get with the times, and “after thorough market research”, Nestlé have replaces their old-fashioned box of dark chocolates with bars of chocolate.

Well I’ve never really been that fond of Black Magic, but I’m aware that it’s been around in the UK since I was a kid, and when I happened to see this bar on sale in Waitrose, I thought I’d give it a go.

As you can see from the photos, the packaging is rather nice. Under that thick paper wrapper and foil, there’s a rather nice looking bar of chocolate as well.

Unfortunately, that’s where it starts to go a bit wrong. It seems that Nestlé have updated the branding for modern tastes, but haven’t bothered to update the chocolate at all. It’s the dullest, blandest dark chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

According to the wrapper, this is a 52% bar, so I wasn’t expecting a great deal, but other than the initial, decidedly average chocolate taste, there are no other interesting flavour notes here at all. It’s the exact same issue that Deanna talked about in her Guittard review – it neither has the creaminess milk chocolate or the flavour of dark chocolate.

The wrapper describes it as “mellow”, but what they really mean is “No Added Interestingness”. But even the description Nestlé give it confirms to me that they’re fully aware this bar has no taste at all.

The fruit and nut don’t add a great deal either. Very occasionally you’ll get something stuck in your teeth, which relieves the boredom for a few seconds, but that’s about it.

It seems to me that this is a blatant attempt to get some of the Green & Black’s market, but the problem is all Nestlé have done is changed the wrapper and the logo. That might fool people the first time they buy it, but they won’t come back for more.

At least you knew you were getting something naff back in the 80s….

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Comments On This Post

  1. jMo

    I wonder how much they’ll make before people wise up. Raisinets are about it for me and Nestle.

  2. christine

    I agree completely, i was really disappointed in this bar, completely bland and tasteless.

    Thing is, Dom says Nestle have replaced their boxes with bars – but I’m sure I’ve seen black magic bars before, when I was little (late 80’s) in a vending machine.

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